Trollvind halt was special case but Equinor 'believes in floating wind': Europe renewables boss

Equinor’s recent decision to pause the gigascale Trollvind floating wind project was a “special case” and its postponement doesn’t mean the oil & gas giant is wavering in its commitment to the technology, said Trine Borum Bojsen, senior vice president for renewables in Europe.

“It was postponed due to various specific reasons related to technology, turbine availability within that very ambitious timeline we had,” she said at a webinar hosted by research company Aegir Insights.

“And then … we have a general kind of cost increase pressure these days. So, all of those parts didn't fit together.

“I think we are very firm that we have tested and proven [it], and we believe in floating, definitely.”

The halting of Trollvind, together with project delays elsewhere in Europe, was a major blow to the still immature floating wind sector.

Borum Bojsen said she still believes that there is a huge market for floating wind, and that all other floating projects in Equinor’s global portfolio are progressing.

“We believe, as Trollvind was intended to, that floating will play a big role in decarbonising oil and gas platforms,” she added. “In that respect [it is] a very important technology.”

The industry, however, needs to mature further and industrialise to push prices down, as happened with bottom-fixed offshore wind earlier, Borum Bojsen said.

Companies need “predictability of the pipeline” and to “see projects coming as pearls on a string.”

“I’m pretty sure we can reach a similar cost out curve as we did with bottom fixed,” she said.

“What we need is a scalable outlook and the standardisation of technologies and solutions to see how we can develop production facilities, and ports and harbours, or assembly sites.”

Equinor currently is in the final phases of building the 88MW Hywind Tampen floating array off Norway, which once commissioned will be the world’s first-ever offshore oil & gas decarbonisation project.

Borum Bojsen's comments were backed by analyst firm 4C Offshore, who said it will take time to bring floating wind costs down.

"Norway must expect to have to invest in a couple of first [floating] auctions before the costs go down and industrialisation is established."